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The San Diego District Attorney’s office including DA Bonnie Dumanis and DDA Laura Gunn do not have immunity for their misconduct, ruled a Federal court in a $20 million lawsuit against them and other parties involved in the wrongful prosecution of Cynthia Sommer.

Sommer spent two years in jail awaiting trial, being tried and was found guilty of the murder of her husband, twenty-three year old Marine Sgt. Todd Sommer. Sommer was arrested on November 30, 2005 and convicted of the murder of her husband on January 30, 2007. However she was freed by a Judge in San Diego County on November 30, 2007 when her conviction was overturned and she was granted a new trial after new lab testing showed no arsenic whatsoever in Sgt. Todd Sommer’s tissues.

The federal court ruled there was enough evidence against San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis and Laura Gunn, Deputy District Attorney for the County of San Diego, that the two women per the Federal Court’s rulings; “Dumanis and Gunn fabricated evidence and continued their investigation after they knew or should have known that Plaintiff was innocent.”

Speculation is that the initial tests that showed very high levels of arsenic were due to contamination. A defense expert witness testified that the initial tests showing arsenic levels 1020 times normal were physiologically improbable and inconsistent. Given the alarming track record of misconduct of the district attorney’s office under Dumanis, there are obvious questions about the source and reason for the contamination.Read more…

Recently San Diego County Superior Court judges including Judge Harry Elias have chastised prosecutors for the San Diego District Attorney’s office for violating the law by withholding potentially exculpatory evidence. He and other judges have dared to make decisions the DA didn’t support. DA Bonnie Dumanis thinks she knows how to handle such judges — refuse to try cases before them and try to push them out of criminal courts. Dumanis seemingly thinks the DA can control judges to make them do what she and her prosecutors want them to do by threatening their careers. But this is a clear violation of the separation of judicial and executive branches of government. It is also directly opposed to the interests of the public to ensure that citizens accused of a crime are given a fair and impartial trial.Read more…